Just watched the Nationwide race at Daytona which I recorded the other day, I've been avoiding the thread as I didn't want to know the result. Enjoyed the race, but a bit disappointed with the carnage late on, Danica was doing really well again. Who was the guy in the blue & white car who was rubbing laterally across people's rear bumpers spinning them round? I noticed him weaving about behind Danica and she dropped back with about 25 laps to go, then he span someone else out in front and she got caught up in it. Blooming unlucky.

A friend is trying to persuade me to go, what tickets did you buy ? there are 2 and 4 races deals on the website...

Our tickets are for the 500 only.

I'd love to do the whole speed week!.

the qualy races for the past few years have not been so great. Would recommend the Saturday though as there are less people around and more chance to get a good look around and see the Nationwide race.

Cup Race due to start 6:19pm Sunday our time.Nationwide is on MotorsTV at 10:30pm Saturday our time. Looks like this is on a slight delay as the race is due to start some 40mins before that.

The big news this week was Allmendinger failing his 2nd drug tests, he is now suspended indefinitely and has voluntarily entered the NASCAR road to recovery program. Turns out he tested positive for amphetamines. Hornish is in the car until further notice.

NASCAR lamented the death of a 41-year-old man who was struck by lightning following the stoppage of Sunday's Cup race at Pocono.

At least nine more people were also treated for the same reason, one of them being in critical condition while the rest had minor to moderate injuries and were taken to hospital.

Fans at the track were warned about the approaching storm which eventually caused the race to be called off when only 98 of the scheduled 160 laps had been completed.

According to various reports, the fan killed was either in or around a car in one of the track's parking lots when the lightning hit.

"We are deeply saddened that a fan has died and others were injured by lightning strikes following today's race at Pocono," said NASCAR spokesman David Higdon.

"Our thoughts are with them as well as all those affected by this unfortunate accident."

Jeff Gordon, who was declared the winner of the event as he was leading the field when the last caution waved, was also saddened when informed fans had been struck by lightning.

"There was a huge, huge crack from lightning," said Gordon. "You could tell it was very close. I mean, that's the thing that's going to take away from the victory is the fact that somebody was affected by that.

"I mean, the fans here are so loyal and avid. When we were going back to the garage area, there was a group of fans chanting up there that were not leaving."

I saw the tweets about the death/injuries, what a horrible day. On the ESPN coverage they mentioned that they had removed their cameramen from the pitlane because they carry radio antennas to upload the images and due to the risk of lightning it wasn't safe to be out there, "bit of the top" I thought to myself - obviously not!

Did anyone catch Jnr parking in the empty garage and grabbing a jack and jacking his car up ?Tough breaks for him and Hamlin but lucky for Burton. EGR need to get their act sorted out, JPMs pace was woeful again.

Dodge will pull out of NASCAR at the end of the year, the American manufacturer announced on Tuesday.

While the 2013 Sprint Cup models of Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota are put through their paces at Martinsville in a shakedown test, Dodge has announced its withdrawal from the series at the end of the year in an afternoon teleconference.

Following Penske Racing's decision to move back to Ford from 2013, the future of Dodge in NASCAR became uncertain as Penske led the development of its cars and engines, fielding the only full-time entries in the Cup grid and the Nationwide series.

Despite Penske's announcement last March, which Dodge officials labeled as a "business" decision back then, Dodge went on to unveil its 2013 car, but since then there had not been any clear indication of its tying up with a team to lead its competitive efforts looking ahead.

Penske Racing continuing to build Dodge engines for 2013, despite running Fords in its own cars, was initially a possibility but it recently closed the door on such option, also announcing Monday that it will run units supplied by Roush Yates engines.

Ralph Gilles, President and CEO of Dodge's Street and Racing Technology brand (SRT) said the "committee-level" decision was taken only last Friday, after it was unable to put together the structure it thought necessary to reach its goals.

He denied financial reasons played in the company's decision.

"Following the announcement of Penske Racing in March 12, we set up a detailed evaluation process to determine who our perspective new partners could be and specifically what the future would hold for us on and off the racetrack," Gilles said.

"We were initially pleased to see the vast amount of interest from teams and sponsors that came our way with a lot of interesting packages and ideas. We couldn't unfortunately put together a structure that made sense to continue our business and competitive objectives for next year.

"This decision was not based on budgets, even though we have diversified in many sports this year, this was really a NASCAR-centric discussion and the case of the different pieces of the puzzle not fitting together to satisfy the structure we needed to fit our overall business and competitive objectives."

This year Dodge has won three Sprint Cup races with Brad Keselowski, currently one of the leading entries into this year's Chase, while he has also notched up three victories in the Nationwide Series where his Penske team-mate Sam Hornish Jr is a title contender.

Gilles said Dodge remains committed to finishing its association with Penske Racing on a high at the end of the year.

"We're committed to and focused on the 2012 season with Mr. Penske and we're going to do anything in our power to secure hopefully a Chase win and also a championship potentially in the Nationwide Series," Gilles added.

Dodge had once retired from NASCAR already in 1977 but came back in 2001 with former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Ray Evernham leading the development of its cars though a squad built around the manufacturer's return.

In all honesty, I can't say I'm that surprised by the exit of Dodge. This year their cars are used by a few lower down teams, and Penske. But next year Penske is going to use Fords, and as NASCAR is so popular in the States and does a lot for brand image, I guess they thought if they weren't associated with one of the top teams, just with a few back markers and still coming last, it's going to hurt their image. For example, someone in the market for a Dodge Charger who is a massive NASCAR fan may prefer the Chevy or the Ford if it's faster on the track.

Must say it is a shame though, out of the 2013 cars revealed so far* the Dodge was by far the best looking, despite the others looking a lot more like the road going versions they represent than the current crop, the Dodge just appeared to be a bodykitted 2 door Charger with some slicks on it.

I think the only one we're waiting for an "official" unveil from is Chevy. Rumour is they'll unveil it alongside the road version of the new SS, which is going to be the next gen Holden Commodore, which is the same basic car as the Vauxhall VXR8. So, in a roundabout way, NASCAR will feature the Ford Mondeo racing some Vauxhalls next year, good job they'll have massive V8s or it'd be more like REPCAR than NASCAR.

A quote on autosport that dinger was given an "energy pill" by a friend that just happened to contain amphetamines...

It was apparently adderall that is used to treat AHAD.In one way you could say it was unfortunate and that 'dinger isn't a druggie.On the other hand it was pretty stupid of him to accept and take a pill without knowing what it was and even more dumb considering he knew drivers are regularly tested..

Dodge leaving has been rumoured since Penske switched to Ford.

Going to be interesting as silly season ramps up and we see drivers and teams do the get sponsorship/contracts signed dance.